The invention relates to a flat knitting machine having a device serving for switching on, accelerating and switching off the carriage drive and possessing a manually movable handlebar which is oriented parallel to a needle bed and which is mounted eccentrically at its ends and can be pivoted between a lower and an upper end position and fixed at least in the upper end position.
Flat knitting machines with handlebars of the type mentioned are known, for example from German Offenlegungsschrift 3,705,125 of the Applicant. In addition to the problem of a sensitive control of the carriage drive by such a handlebar, there is the requirement of a rapid cut-off of the carriage drive also by hand. The last-mentioned requirement is not satisfied to a sufficient extent in the hitherto known handlebars, because the mechanical end-position interlocks used act with a time delay. The object on which the invention is based is, therefore, to design a flat knitting machine of the type mentioned in the introduction, in such a way that the carriage drive can also be cut off abruptly by means of the handlebar.